The present invention relates to a device for filling and capping containers or bags and in particular relates to a device for automatically filling and capping containers which are serially fed to the device.
Many uses are found today for flexible bags which must be filled with a product and then sealed. Many of these flexible bags have caps which are placed on spouts to seal the bags after they have been filled with the desired product. Conventional hand-fed fillers require the operator to load the bag in proximity of the nozzle into a bag spout holder that clamps the spout so that the filling nozzle can enter the spout and fill the bag with product. This method, of course, poses a safety problem for the operator. Also, other hand-fed filling machines stop and wait for the next bag to be loaded. If the operator's attention is diverted momentarily, this load time can increase substantially.
Automatic bag fillers also have been developed such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,134 which utilizes a web of serrated bags feeding into the machine where the bags are filled with product, capped and separated from the web. While this method is much safer for the operator, it has several difficulties associated with it. One of the difficulties is that the filling nozzle must move to and from the bag spout in order to fill the bag with product. Thus the bag spout is held fixed and the filling nozzle is moved into and out of contact with the spout for filling purposes. The disadvantage of this type of operation is that the delivery conduits for the product to the filling nozzle have to be flexible to allow for movement of the product to the movable filling nozzle. Such flexible lines create a considerable problem where aseptic conditions must be maintained when the containers are being filled with consumer products such as milk, water, fruit juices, and the like. The same problem presents itself where the bags are filled with products that are hot.
Further, in systems such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,134 where the filling nozzle must move, the distance between the empty bag spout and the full bag spout approximately equals the length of the bag which may be as much as 16 inches. Obviously, in addition to the other problems created by movement over such a large distance, time is consumed for the filling operation which, of course, reduces the number of bags which can be loaded in a given period of time.
Also, devices such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,134 operate to fill and cap each bag in serial fashion thus performing the task of filling the bag, capping the bag and obtaining a new bag in separate steps. Again, this requires an additional period of time which increases the overall time period for filling the bags and reduces the number of bags which can be filled per a given period of time.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,116 are designed for the production of filled and closed plastic containers wherein multiple steps are performed simultaneously. However, they do not relate to the filling of bags which poses an entirely different problem and, in addition, the filling nozzles again are required to move to the spout of the container to be filled thus creating the same problems as discussed previously.
The present invention relates to a device for the automatic filling and capping of containers serially fed to the filling and capping machine. The device not only has a fixed filling nozzle which alleviates the problems discussed earlier, but also has a single shuttle or carriage which has controlled reciprocating movement to enable a capping operation and retrieval of a new bag to occur simultaneously and to place the new bag in a position for filling and simultaneously to obtain a cap for placing on the bag after it has been filled. Further, the bags are fed seriatum to the machine on one side while the caps are fed seriatum to the machine on the other side and the shuttle moves from one side to the other retrieving the bags, placing the bags in a proper location to be filled, retrieving a new cap and capping the bag. A single shuttle or carriage provides a relatively simple device for performing multiple operations thus not only saving time during the filling and capping of the bags but also allows the filling nozzle to remain stationery while the bag is moved to and from the filling nozzle. Further, during the capping operation, the same device that moves the bag to the filling nozzle also moves the bag to the cap chuck which forces the cap into the filling spout thus sealing the bag.
Finally, since the filled and capped bags are ejected in the same location by the present device, only one exit conveyor belt is required whereas in U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,116, a belt is required on each side of the machine.